RIFLE, Colo. - When you read this, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission may have adopted new rules to govern oil and natural gas development across the state that puts more emphasis on the environment and wildlife, compared to the rules the industry operated under in recent years.

Dave Neslin, acting director of the commission, outlined the proposed rules at the Dec. 4 Garfield County Energy advisory board meeting in Rifle, and called the process that

led to this point “one of the most inclusive and extensive in the history of Colorado.” He

said 87 “parties,” including the county, City of Rifle, Town of Silt and many others, had

official standing during the process, supposedly to have more input into how the new

rules developed.

The new rules were mandated by the Democratic-controlled state legislature, with the

oil and gas commission listening to more than 160 witnesses at more than 12 days of

hearings since the summer of 2007, Neslin said.

“To develop the rules we have before us now, which all the commission members have

to support, suggest we’ve found a pretty good balance with development of oil and gas

and protection of wildlife and the environment,” he said.

While time will tell if that will indeed be the case, we think the proposed rules show a

lot of promise, but no guarantees.

For the last decade or so, when gas companies started paying attention to the trillions

of cubic feet of gas underneath our feet here in Western Garfield County and the

Piceance Basin, they’ve pretty much had the run of things.

One only has to look out the window to see the hundreds of miles of new - mostly dirt -

roads cut into the ground to get trucks and drilling rigs to the best places to drill down

thousands of feet. While the industry has tried to reclaim the areas they necessarily

have to carve up, long time residents will tell you in a lot of cases, the land will never

look the same.

And hunters and outfitters will and have testified that they’ve seen fewer deer and elk

in the area, something they noticed at the same time as the gas companies started

punching holes in the ground, spewing emissions and just making a lot of noise.

Spills of chemicals and, in a very few limited cases, very lax control over the drilling

crews by some operators and their contractors, have likely contaminated our

groundwater more than we probably know. You’ve read and heard about your

neighbors developing health-related problems that perhaps coincidentally weren’t

around before the drilling started.

But the new rules come at a time when the area economy isn’t as healthy as it was

just a year ago. Nearly every gas operator in the county plans to drill fewer wells next

year than this year and many years before. That means fewer workers and lower tax

revenue from the industry to help Rifle, Silt, Parachute, Battlement Mesa and the

county deal with their needs.

Could the new rules lead to even further cutbacks by the industry? Our crystal ball isn’t

clear enough on that point. Suffice it to say the gas under our feet isn’t going anywhere

and Western Garfield County has weathered and survived economic troubles and

energy-related busts before. We’ll still be here; the gas will, too, but it likely won’t be

easy and there will be some pain for many people.

Neslin said the new rules will likely be refined over the next few years. But in the long

run, we think the new rules from the oil and gas commission offer a more practical

approach to development of this nation’s most valuable natural resource, while

protecting the environment and wildlife we all share this planet with.